1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a grilling apparatus, more particularly, to a secondary grilling apparatus for use with a standard outdoor grill. The secondary grilling apparatus makes it possible to cook delicate foodstuffs on an outdoor grill without loss of substantial amounts of the foodstuff through the apertures in the standard outdoor grill.
2. Prior Art
The outdoor grill is a familiar object in contemporary life. Almost invariably, outdoor grills include a vessel in which a substance is burned to produce heat. Above the vessel is placed a grill which is conventionally constructed of a number of parallel elements connected to a peripheral or intermediate frame to form a primary grill having spaced elements on which food to be cooked may be placed. In general, such primary grills are comprised of relatively thin columnar stock material, the pieces of stock material being arranged with respect to one another in a parallel fashion. Conventionally, the spaces between the stock material elements is much greater than the diameter of the piece of stock material itself.
Such conventional grills are perfectly adequate for the cooking of foodstuffs which are relatively large in size and which tend to cook in a coherent mass. Conventional grills of this type are suitable for cooking pieces of meat which are held together by connective tissue or bone, such as steaks or chops from any species of animal, disarticulated pieces of fowl such as chicken and duck or foodstuff held together by binders such as hot dogs.
Conventional grills are, however, inadequate for cooking foodstuffs which tend not to remain in a coherent mass during the cooking process. For example, the flesh of fish tends to flake when cooked, and when cooked on a conventional grill, the flesh of the fish is inadequately supported and tends to fall through the apertures between the grill elements and into the vessel containing the heat generating substance.
One approach to cooking flakey foodstuff on conventional grills is to support the foodstuff either in a vessel such as a frying pan or to enclose it in a wrapping of metal foil. However, these methods present a physical barrier to the heat and aromatic elements which give char-broiled foods their distinctive flavor and appeal.
The instant invention allows such flakey foodstuffs to be char-broiled by providing a secondary grilling surface which adequately supports flakey foods, such as fish, during char-broiling. Although secondary grilling surfaces are known in the prior art, none has the distinctive features of the instant invention.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 2,920,614 illustrates a grilling device intended to be located on the top of a standard primary grill. However, the surface of this device is not designed to support foodstuffs which flake during cooking.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,717,083 also shows a secondary grill which fits over a primary grill and is self-supporting thereon, but the intersecting members of the secondary grill have lengthwise undulations and furthermore have no special adaptation for the cooking of foodstuffs which flake.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,416,510 and 2,872,557 have devices which when placed on the tops of stoves provide for cooking and heating of foodstuffs, but beyond the fact that they are used in conjunction with the surface of a stove, they bear no resemblance to the invention which is claimed hereinbelow.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,583,385; 213,532; and 265,608 all have grilling surfaces in which the elements comprising the grill appear to have widths greater than that employed in conventional charcoal grills.
U.S. Pat. No. 95,909 discloses a broiler having two grids held in spaced relation to one another and supported from above.
A grill disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,182,585 has no special adaptation for delicate foods, although the rack rests on an adjustable mechanism.
The grill disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,692,012 has dual grilling surfaces, but neither one is modified for cooling delicate foodstuffs.